


A Simple Mistake

by FromSeaToSea



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Canon Universe, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Germany is Holy Roman Empire, Germany/Italy is only mentioned, Human & Country Names Used (Hetalia), Humor, Kid!Germany, Magic, Memory Loss, Misunderstandings, No Incest, Sibling Love, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-07-08 09:53:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15928007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FromSeaToSea/pseuds/FromSeaToSea
Summary: The countries were hoping to get through the last day of meetings quickly and without a hitch so that they could finally go home. Too bad England let his pride get in the way of that.





	A Simple Mistake

Prussia woke up to a splitting headache and light shining in his eyes. _Great_ , he thought as he turned over, hoping to get a few more minutes of sleep before his brother forced him to get up. If only he didn’t have to go to that meeting today. Then he’d be able to sleep until well past noon without having to worry about being annoyed or having obligations.

He groaned, feeling sorry for himself despite the pain being self-inflicted. Last night he had gotten carried away with drinking, not unlike many of the other countries there and had gotten shitfaced. Ludwig had also gotten drunk, even if in the beginning he had been telling Gilbert to watch the amount he was drinking. As if he had to pay attention, he had been alive for so long that it was actually a challenge to get drunk.

Gilbert flicked his eyes opened and looked around, speaking of Ludwig, where was he? Prussia had been lying in bed awake for enough time for his brother to have taken notice and force him to get ready. He slowly sat up and scanned the room, but no one was there. He turned towards the bathroom door, which was closed. Maybe he was still getting ready? Germany did take quite some time gelling his hair back, but even so.

Prussia stood up, the world swaying under his feet for a moment. Spots dancing in his eyes. Once he was fine he slowly walked over to the door and knocked.

“Germany. You in there?” He asked, now leaning heavily against the door. He clutched his head in his hands, _Gott am I going to need a painkiller_. After a few minutes of no answer, he was starting to get confused. His brother wouldn’t leave without him, at least not without waking him up and telling him beforehand.

But it didn’t make sense. He wasn’t in the room and there was no answer from the washroom. Maybe he had left and was bringing back food?

Gilbert went over to his cell phone and called his brother, he would surely pick up, he always made sure to have his phone with him in case- a loud ring blared through the hotel room. Prussia ran over to where the sound was coming from and found Germany’s phone on his bedside table. Well, he was definitely still here. Prussia turned back to the bathroom door and knocked on it once again.

“Ludwig, I know you’re in there, come on seriously what’s with you?” He banged on the door. Only a short amount of time passed before Gilbert opened the door, becoming impatient. He didn’t see anyone in the room or any indication that someone had even been there.

Until he heard something by his feet and glanced down. His eyes widened and he had to take a step back. Germany was here, but just not as he’d last seen him. Now he was a 9-year-old child and was wearing black shorts and a white button-up shirt, instead of the red shorts and the black tank top that he had been wearing to bed last night.

Prussia shook his head. What was happening? How had his adult brother turn into a child overnight? Nations didn’t just de-age. Even if they became someone else’s territory, if they were already an adult when it happened then they would remain the same. There wasn’t any logical explanation for this as far as Prussia could see.

“Where are we?” Germany asked fiddling with his fingers and looking around the hotel nervously, “why aren’t we at your house with our boss?” _Our boss?_ Prussia thought  _we haven’t shared a boss in… oh_.

“Um, I uh- planned a meeting with…” he trailed off not sure what to say. If he said the wrong thing Germany could start asking more questions, or worse get scared and try to escape. Prussia shuddered, that would end badly.

“My- uh _our_ boss planned a meeting with another country to negotiate… stuff. It’s super top secret so I can’t tell you,” Gilbert lied quickly. Hopefully, that would suffice.

“Alright,” Germany said and walked past him. Prussia sighed relieved. He had almost forgotten how trusting his brother had been of his word when he was younger. Not that Ludwig didn’t still trust him, he just didn’t always trust his word right away. Especially not without proof.

Germany jumped up onto his bed and peered around with wide curious eyes. After analyzing the majority of the contents in the room Germany felt Prussia’s eyes on him and turned to face him.

“What?” he asked. Prussia shrugged. He had forgotten that he had kept Germany so sheltered when he had been first unified. He had been concerned that Austria would try to take him for his own again and that France would hurt him in revenge for what Prussia had done to him in the Franco-Prussian war, so Gilbert had kept a close eye on his little brother to make sure he was safe and had hardly let him go far.

Despite the things going on at the time, Prussia was fond of the days when his brother was a kid and looked up to him. Ludwig acted as if he’d built the world just for him. Yet, so much had changed in that short amount of time that he’d forgotten what it was like.

“Why are you staring at me?” Ludwig crossed his arms irritated. Prussia had been staring at him for several minutes and hadn’t answered his question, or even acknowledged that he’d even heard Germany at all.

“Sorry, I got lost in my thoughts. I was just wondering what to do with you,” Gilbert ran his hand through his hair. He had to inform the countries that Germany wasn’t appearing today. They’d surely notice his absence, being one of the few nations that took these meetings seriously and tried to hold order in them. They would also notice if he showed up and his brother didn’t, because Gilbert would take any chance to skip one of these things and mainly only went because Ludwig insisted he go.

As Prussia pulled at his hair in frustration, trying to figure out what to do, Germany had gone to the front door of the hotel and opened it. It took only a second for Gilbert to notice before he charged at the door, praying that no one would be outside and see Ludwig. But that wasn’t the case because once Prussia had grabbed onto little Germany’s arm and turned around he saw Northern Italy standing only a few steps away watching.

Prussia had the sudden urge to hit his head up against a wall. This day was not going how he’d planned.

“Hello! I’ve never seen you before. My name is Italy Venenziano and I represent the Northern part of Italy. What’s your name?” Italy smiled and knelt down to Germany’s height so he could shake his hand without having to awkwardly bend over.

Germany hesitantly shook Italy’s offered hand and mumbled bashfully, “I am Germany, nice to meet you.” Italy’s eyes widened in shock and turned to Prussia, about to ask what was going on when Gilbert interrupted him before he could speak.

“I woke up this morning and found him like this, I have no idea how it happened. He doesn’t remember anything except when he was first unified so he doesn’t really know anyone, and don’t let him find out until I figure out what the hell is going on because something bad might happen if we try to remind him of things.” Prussia quickly let out in Italian, so that Italy would understand and Germany wouldn’t have a clue as to what he was saying.

“Okay,” Italy said, not being able to take all that information at once and being able to process it.

“What were you saying?” Germany narrowed his eyes, glancing back and forth between his brother and the new country he had just met.

“Italy’s been teaching me Italian and I wanted to see how well I was doing so I just said some phrases in Italian I know,” Prussia lied with ease. Germany regarded Italy, wanting confirmation.

“Yes,” Italy said simply.

“Bonjour! Are you going to the meeting or are you too busy gossiping?” France laughed as he came into view. _Shit! I need to get Germany out of this hallway before anyone else sees him!_

As soon as Germany had heard France’s voice he had hid behind Prussia’s legs and was glaring at him with all the fury he had.

“Oh! Who is this cutie?” France crouched down to get a better look at the boy.

“Go away,” Germany mumbled not lessening his glare. France stood back up not understanding why the child had been so cold to him.

“It’s fine,” Prussia reassured his friend and leaned in closer to whisper, “it’s Germany and he only has his memories from the unification and thinks you might be trying to take him away from me or something.” Francis pulled away and nodded in understanding before once again crouching down to be at eye level with Ludwig.

“Don’t worry mon petit, we are no longer fighting and I don’t want to take revenge or anything. I have accepted my defeat.”

Germany didn’t say anything at first, but once Prussia whispered, “it’s okay he won’t hurt us,” he stepped out from behind his older brother.

He held out his hand in greeting, “I’m Germany. Sorry for being rude.”

Francis ignored the hand and gave little Ludwig a hug. “C’est d’accord. You’re so cute! Prussia, where did he learn such manners? Obviously not from the likes of you.” He had almost commented on how he’d thought that Germany had grown into being a formal person but had thought better of it.

While Ludwig was struggling to get out of France’s hug, Gilbert huffed, “it must be because I’m an awesome mentor!”

France laughed, “oh of course!”

“What? Okay fine, it’s probably because he was born polite, I don’t know,” then he noticed that his brother was still struggling to get out of his friend’s grip, “and quit hugging him, he’s not big on hugs.”

Francis immediate let go of Ludwig and apologized for being too touchy.

“It’s okay,” Ludwig said going to stand beside his brother.

Gilbert then leaned over to Francis and whispered, “what do you think could have turned him into a kid?”

He thought for a second before answering, “England knows how to do magic, he might have caused this.”

Prussia’s face darkened. “You’re probably right, but I’m not too pleased with the idea.”

He pulled away from France to glanced over at Italy who was now trying to teach Germany Italian.

“The sky is pretty is; ‘Il cielo è bello’ in Italian, now try saying it back.”

“Il si-elo?”

“No _cielo,_ you pronounce it as one.”

“Sorry,” Germany tilted his head down bashfully.

“It’s okay! Learning languages isn’t easy,” Feliciano reassured.

France tried to call Britain again, having already tried twice before while Prussia was busy watching the other two, but still no one picked up.

He gave Prussia an apologetic smile, “I can’t seem to get a hold of him, maybe I could contact America or Canada and see if they know where he is.”

At that exact moment, as if they’d been summoned, both Canada and America turned around the corner and were now walking in their direction.

As they got closer America asked, “hey sup! Were you two just talking about us?”

Gilbert and Francis exchanged looks before Francis said, “we were hoping you knew where England might be. We tried contacting him, but he didn’t pick up.”

“Maybe he’s skipping the meeting, actually that sounds like a good idea!” America exclaimed before being elbowed in the gut by his brother.

“We’ll help you find him.”

Germany had taken notice of the two newcomers and pulled on Canada’s pant leg trying to get his attention. He glanced down and noticed the boy.

He leaned down. “Hi nice to meet you, I’m Canada.”

America also became aware of the ‘new’ little country at his feet. “Hey little guy, I’m America!”

Germany shook both of their hands. “I’m Germany.”

Both now had expressions of utter confusion and turned to Prussia.

“This is why I need to see him,” he explained.

“Then who’ll watch him?” America asked, now no longer crouching on the floor.

“You’re right, we can’t just bring him with us, other countries might try and take him or tell him stuff since he doesn’t remember anything.” Gilbert drew his eyebrows together in thought.

“We could just leave him with Italy since they seem to be getting along quite well,” Francis said watching Italy and Germany as they seemed to be playing some sort of game.

“That sounds good.” Prussia now turned to where France was facing, “Italy, can you watch Germany for a bit while we’re gone.” He nodded in agreement and turned back to Ludwig, who was still watching Prussia.

“It’s okay, I’ll be back soon, plus Italy couldn’t hurt a fly.”

****

They had decided to split up, thinking that it would make the odds of finding Arthur sooner, greater. So now, the two North American countries were off searching for their previous caretaker, to see if they could find out what had happened to Ludwig.

They were walking down one the many halls of the hotel when they spotted Japan.

“Why aren’t you two headed towards the meeting room? It’s going to be starting in 20 minutes,” Kiku asked.

“Something happened and we need to find England right away,” Mathew explained. “Do you know where he could be?”

“He might be in the meeting room, but since even our host is not there I am not sure how many countries have decided to leave,” Japan admitted.

“Alright thanks, buddy.” Alfred patted Kiku on the back before all three of them headed off towards the boardroom.

****

Back in Prussia and Germany’s hotel room, Italy was trying to find plain paper for him and Germany to draw on. The two of them had already played multiple games and Italy had tried teaching the now child nation how to speak Italian, but Italy was getting bored and wanted to draw something.

He had searched through Germany’s luggage, finding only lined paper for note keeping along with important documents and papers for this week’s meetings. So, now he was rummaging through the desk’s drawers, hoping he’d have more luck. His boyfriend usually had some plain paper with him in case Italy came over and wanted to draw and didn’t have his sketchbook with him, so it had to be around here somewhere.

As he was glancing through the first drawer he heard a gasp behind him. Italy quickly turned around to see what had caused little Germany to make such a noise. Ludwig was sitting on his bed, looking back and forth, not being able to focus on anything, and his breathing was picking up to the point where he was hyperventilating. He then started to rock back and forth. _Panic attack_ , Italy thought as he jogged over to him.

Italy sat on the bed next to Germany and begun to run his fingers through Ludwig’s hair and hum a lullaby. He usually did this to calm Germany after a nightmare and it usually helped, but this was different, Germany was no longer an adult, but a child, he might not be comforted by this anymore.

He continued to stroke Germany’s hair and checked him over, to see if it was helping. Feliciano gaped in confusion and fear when he noticed that Ludwig’s eyes had clouded over and were unfocused. _What do I do?_ he thought as he pulled his own hair feeling overwhelmed. It was then that Ludwig started to mutter something that he couldn’t quite hear.

Feliciano leaned closer and heard Ludwig say, “no, no, no…” over and over under his breath. Italy didn’t know what to do, he was usually okay in these situations, but since he had been entrusted with Germany’s care, and he was no longer an adult, he wasn’t thinking straight. Not to mention the thought of an overprotective angry older brother Prussia coming to rain down vengeance on him wasn’t exactly comforting.

Germany continued to mutter more incomprehensible things, “I- I made a promise- I promised to go back to her- I can’t…”

“Who did you promise?” Italy asked.

But he didn’t seem to hear him, “she- Italy couldn’t handle…”

Everything seemed to stop. Italy couldn’t move, couldn’t think, he couldn’t even blink. Before he came crashing back to reality. Italy flinched away from Germany as if he’d been burnt and fell onto the floor in his haste to get away. He crawled over to his phone, which he had left sitting on the desk, and dialed a familiar number.

****

Prussia and France were walking down the hallway. They were on their way to Arthur’s room to see if he was still there. Prussia thought it was unlikely considering the meeting was about to start, but France had insisted that it was a good idea to check all the possible places he could be, including his hotel room.

France slowed down as they approached England’s door and double checked he had the right room number before knocking. After several deathly silent moments, France tried again.

“Face it, he isn’t here,” Prussia sighed as he leaned up against the wall. Just then his phone begun to ring, playing ‘Grande amore’, which meant that Italy was calling. Gilbert sent his friend a concerned look, _why was he calling? Had something bad happened?_ Before picking up.

“Hello?” He answered, hoping his voice wasn’t noticeably shaking.

“Prussia! I- something happened- is happening to Germany- I don’t…” Italy said incoherently.

“What! Italy tell me what’s going on! Is he hurt?” Prussia fretted as France glanced over mouthing a question asking if everything was okay.

“I need help! Come back now!” Feliciano replied before being cut off by a shuffling noise and the line going dead.

“Italy? Italy!” Gilbert implored as he stared at his phone which now showed that the call had ended. He was about to try and call back, but Francis grabbed his arm.

“What’s going on?”

“We need to get back to my hotel room right now!” Gilbert shouted as he practically dragged the Frenchman along back towards his room.

“What did he say?” Francis asked resting his hand on Gilbert's arm in an attempt to be comforting.

“He was panicking so he wasn’t speaking clearly, but he said that something happened to Germany and that I- we needed to get back to the room right away.” Gilbert started to walk faster, almost to the point where it could be considered running, while Francis was trying to keep up.

“Look we’ll get there in- ow! My arm is still attached to my body you know!” France yelped as the albino pulled a little too harshly on his arm in an attempt to get him to speed up too.

“Sorry,” Prussia mumbled only partly paying attention to France’s words.

“Prussia, we’ll be there soon and besides Germany is still a nation it’s not like he can-”

“Die?” Gilbert interrupted. “I know that, but if he does die or get seriously hurt, how do I know that it won’t affect him being changed back? Or if he’ll still be injured when he does change back. I can’t let that happen, I’m supposed to take care of him.”

“It’ll be fine, see we’re almost there,” Francis pointed out. A few more steps and they’d managed to reach Prussia’s hotel room. Prussia was desperately trying to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Why’s it not opening?” he cried in frustration, tears forming in his eyes.

“Try your key,” France said in a calming manner.

Prussia stopped his futile attempt to open the door and pulled out his key card. After it successfully unlocked the door the two burst into the room.

****

The meeting room wasn’t too far from where they were, but America had decided he needed a snack from one of the vending machines. It also didn’t help that the bag of chips that he had paid for had gotten stuck.

“Al,” Mathew sighed in exasperation as his brother tried to reach up into the vending machine to get his chips, “you don’t need them, come on we need to get to the conference room.”

“No way Mattie, I spent 2 bucks on that!” America said as he continued to fruitlessly move his arm back and forth trying to dislodge the bag.

“Alfred, you have a GDP of approximately 24.6 trillion dollars,” Canada said.

“So, I’m in a huge amount of debt, I can’t afford to be losing more money than I already am.”

Japan and Canada glanced at one another out of the corner of their eyes.

“America, if you want, I’ll just give you 2 dollars,” Canada tried to reason with him. They really didn’t have time for delays. They’d promised to help Prussia find England and he wouldn’t be happy if he found out that they had only made it as far as the vending machine.

“But then I’ll owe you two more dollars!”

“I’m not asking you to pay me back.”

“What? Who’s ever heard of that?” America wondered. If you were giving the money away without asking for repayment for anything other than a special occasion, then what was the point?

Canada once again sighed. It seemed as if the only way to do this was by force.

“Once I get him away from the machine, kick it,” he told Kiku as he leaned down and pulled Alfred’s arm from under the slot and away from the vendor.

“Hey!” America exclaimed. As soon as he was out of the way, Japan kicked his foot out, striking the machine. The bag fell from it’s perch to the bottom, now free to be grabbed.

“Why didn’t I think of that?” America asked as he crawled back over and grabbed his chips out of the slot.

“Come on let’s go,” Mathew encouraged, leading his brother and friend towards the conference room.

****

Italy was sitting on the bed beside Germany who was in a trance-like state, rocking back and forth and was saying things under his breath.

Feliciano looked up, tears streaking his face. “Please I don’t know what to do.”

Prussia slowly walked over and switched places with Italy on the bed. He picked his younger brother up in his arms, rocking him back and forth slowly, as if one would do with a baby. It took some time, but Germany eventually calmed down and fell asleep. Gently, as to not disturb him, Gilbert put Ludwig under the covers and tucked him in.

He turned around to see both Italy and France staring at him with wide, curious eyes.

“What?” he whispered.

“How did you know to do that?” France breathed.

“It used to happen a lot when he was little, but he seemed to have grown out of it,” Prussia explained, no longer maintaining eye contact.

“And why is that?” Francis asked, moving closer to Prussia.

“I’m not sure... it might just have been because the unification was gradual and it affected him.” Prussia still had his head lowered and refused to take his eyes off his brother.

Italy narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “That didn’t happen to me or my brother when we unified.”

“Ya, but it’s different though,” Prussia said. His voice sounding weak even in his own ears.

“How?” France insisted as he sat beside Gilbert. He leaned his head down to try and catch his friend’s eye, but Prussia turned his head away to avoid looking at him. “Prussia.”

Prussia sighed, he knew he couldn’t run from saying the truth forever. “After Germany was unified he kept getting attacks, both day and night where he would remember things that happened before the unification. This was because he was more or less a loose connection of states that used to be the Holy Roman Empire, then as he became older and he became more defined as a more united Germany he started to lose these memories, or at least forget them, and he stopped having the attacks.”

He hadn’t wanted to share this information with either of them, especially Italy, who unlike France, was unaware of Germany’s situation or what exactly had happened to his predecessor.

It became silent after Gilbert had finished speaking. The only noise to be heard was little Ludwig’s heavy even breaths. Even then the lack of noise felt suffocating.

“So, it’s true,” Feliciano whispered. Both France and Prussia glanced up at him, surprised that he had been the one to break the silence.

France was the one to speak first, “what’s true?” It was hardly necessary though, both of them were sure of what the Italian meant.

“That Germany is Holy Rome,” Italy replied, confirming their suspicions.

Prussia spoke, “well-”

“Don’t bother lying,” Feliciano said, now with a firm edge to his voice. This made both Francis and Gilbert feel uneasy, as it wasn’t common for the kind, bubbly nation to be so forceful.

“How did-?” Gilbert began to ask, but the Italian once again interrupted him.

“I’ve had my suspicions for awhile.” He paused to take a breath before continuing, “why did you never tell me?”

Gilbert opened and closed his mouth numerous times before he finally said, “I knew it would physically hurt Germany, not to mention that for you it would bring up old painful memories if you knew who he was and how he would never remember you. Therefore, I believed it would be best for no one to know, there are only a few exceptions to this rule and all of them agreed to guard the secret as well.”

“When I first met him, I was shocked to see Holy Rome, who I had thought was long dead, but once he started talking I became confused for he acted as if he had never met me before.” Italy was staring directly at Prussia as he spoke. “I tried to subtly ask him throughout the years, said things I’d hoped would make him remember, but it’s never happened. All I can think of is on that Valentine’s date years ago when he went into a trace-like state similar to this one, but he didn’t say anything.”

Prussia didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t heard much of what had happened on that day, his brother had barely said anything, being too embarrassed by his actions. Not to mention Austria and Hungary hadn’t been much help since they hadn’t been there. So, this came as a surprise.

On the other hand, France had felt like an intruder. It was his fault that the Holy Roman Empire had fallen, what with it being his leader having been the one to forcibly dethroned the Emperor and concurred the entire land. He had also known this entire time that Germany was Holy Rome and had kept this information from Italy. To say the least he felt as if all of his friend’s pain was his fault and that he had no right to be there.

None of them said anything. They probably would have continued to stay quiet for a long while, if it hadn’t been for Germany waking up. “What happened?”

“You had one of your attacks again,” Prussia explained gently, petting his brother’s hair.

Germany removed the hand from his head. “Okay, but why do all of you seem so sad?”

“They didn’t know about your attacks, so they were concerned about you,” Gilbert said.

“I’m sorry, I hope you weren’t too scared. I’ve heard it can be scary, but I don’t know because I don’t remember anything after I’ve woken up,” Ludwig apologized to the two adults standing by his bed.

Francis messed up Germany’s hair. “Tu es trop adorable Allemande.”

Ludwig huffed, leaning out from under Francis’ hand and attempted to fix his hair. France laughed in good nature, thinking it was cute how he was trying to appear serious despite being so young.

Ludwig noticed that Italy had yet to say anything.

“I really am sorry, and I want you to know that I don’t fell any pain or anything. I’m fine, really,” Germany said. He felt guilty, even though he had just met Italy he seemed very nice and he would never want to hurt him. Even if it sounded silly, a kid protecting an adult, Italy was just so sweet that you felt the need to prevent him from ever being sad.

Italy walked over to the bed, on the opposite side that Prussia and France were on, and sat down on Ludwig’s right side, “don’t feel bad, it wasn’t your fault. You can’t control something like that.” Italy then leaned down and enveloped little Germany in a hug.

Germany made a face of disapproval but didn’t try and break away from the embrace.

“Since when do you like hugs?” Prussia teased.

Germany immediately pushed Italy away, a blush forming on his cheeks, “he was upset! I was being nice!”

All three of the older nations began laughing. Ludwig decided that hiding under the covers was the best method of escape.

****

All three of them turned the corner and just at the end of the hall to the left was the meeting room doorway. Canada could have cried in relief. It had taken way to long to get to their destination. Hopefully, it was worth it. Japan pushed the doors open and they stepped in.

The first thing Canada registered was chaos. He could see Turkey bugging Greece, who was struggling to fall back into a deep sleep. Denmark was trying to get Norway’s attention, but he was too busy annoying Iceland. Russia was having a conversation with Estonia, who kept fidgeting with his glasses and fingers, looking like he’d rather be anywhere else. Canada also noticed a random cat that had made itself at home in the middle of the table and was taking a nap. How it could sleep with all of this noise was beyond him.

“Why’s everyone acting this out of control? It usually doesn’t escalate to this level until later in the meeting,” America questioned. This was true, the most common way for all hell to break loose in one of their conferences was when a country made a snide remark to another, which caused a chain reaction of more rude comments towards a country that had ever done anything wrong.

“The meeting was scheduled to start several minutes ago and since France, the one in charge, is not here everyone gave up the pretense of getting anything done,” Japan replied.

Canada once again scanned through the chaos in search of England. He ended up spotting him sitting by himself, giving everyone disapproving glares as he sipped his tea, and occasionally said something to himself. Or maybe he was talking to one of his fairy friends. Canada’s caretaker had explained to him how he could see and communicate with mythical creatures that others couldn’t because he was more connected to magic than most other countries, but he wasn’t too sure that England was telling the truth.

“Arthur’s over there,” Mathew pointed him out and proceeded to head towards him. America followed, but Japan went over to China who had called him over.

Once they had gotten over to Britain, which took longer than necessary what with them trying to avoid being hit, Canada tried to get his attention, “hey Arthur, we’ve got a question for you.”

Surprisingly he heard him and addressed him, “yes what is it Mathew?”

“We were wondering if you could help us with something,” Alfred replied vaguely before Mathew could.

“I guess, it outweighs sitting here amongst this disaster.”

****

Once the two brothers and their former caretaker arrived at Prussia and Germany’s hotel room, England asked, “what are we doing here? I assumed we would be going back to one of your rooms or something. Whose room is this anyways?”

Instead of answering Alfred knocked on the door and waited for a response. He had texted Gilbert earlier and told him they were on their way. He had replied with ‘just knock and I’ll meet you outside’. America assumed that little Ludwig was sleeping or something and Gilbert didn’t want to disturb him.

Prussia opened the door and stepped out, closing the door softly behind him.

“What are we doing at Prussia’s room?” Arthur questioned. He certainly hadn’t expected to be at Prussia’s hotel room of all places. Maybe something had happened to Francis?

“Did you turn my brother into a kid?” Prussia demanded, ignoring England’s question completely.

“What are you talking about?”

“Maybe I wasn’t specific enough. I meant Germany, you know tall, blond, serious. I know it’s confusing, I have a lot of siblings.” Gilbert was speaking in a scary calm tone. It reminded Arthur of how the wind turned cold before the storm came.

“I still don’t follow,” Britain admitted cautiously.

Prussia stepped closer, forcing Arthur to tilt his head further upwards to be able to continue holding eye contact.

“Hey!” America warned and who was about to intervene, although Canada held him back. He might be one of the world’s superpower’s and a force to be reckoned with, but Mathew knew that getting between two powerful, ancient nations, especially when one was angry, was a bad idea.

“Stop playing games. Explain what’s happening.”

“I’m not playing games! I don’t know-” England paused, realization washing over him. “oh.”

“What do you mean, ‘oh’?” Prussia’s growled.

France then stepped out of the hotel room, making his appearance.

“It was meant for him,” Arthur said, pointing at Francis.

None of them could understand what Arthur had intended by this and voice as much;

“What?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“The heck’s that mean?”

England took a breath before explaining, “last night at the gathering when everyone had gotten drunk, France was saying how my magic was lacking and how I always managed to somehow mess up. So, I made a potion to turn him into a child, to prove that I could do magic without failure and to teach him a lesson as to never question my abilities again and gave it to him.

“I saw France with the glass one minute and then the next it was gone. I didn’t see the glass anywhere, not sitting empty on a counter, or in someone else’s hand. Therefore, I assumed in my state that he had drunken it. I have no idea how Germany got it!”

“I remember that I didn’t want it because I assumed it was beer and I’m not really a fan of it.” France recounted, “so I was planning on giving it to Prussia because it’s his favourite drink, but I ran into Germany instead and gave it to him. I hadn’t stopped to consider that Arthur had done anything to it. If I had been sober I would have been more skeptical about the drink.”

Prussia sighed irritably. Of course, this had been a result of a fight between France and England.

“I’m sorry and I never intended for this to happen,” France apologized.

“It’s not your fault,” Gilbert grumbled.

Francis laughed and pointed at Arthur, “haha! That means it’s your fault and now Prussia will probably beat you to a pulp. Serves you right!”

“No! It’s both your faults!” Prussia shouted, “You’re always fighting! For fuck's sake it’s been almost two thousand years, give it a rest!”

“We mostly do it in good nature now,” England said, “it’s fun to torment one another, and don’t you do the same to Germany?”

“Well ya, but not to the extent of USING MAGIC! The worst thing we’ve ever done is fight, not de-age one another!” Prussia said in frustration.

“Everyone is different,” England mumbled in defense.

Before Prussia could reply with a retort Italy peered out of the room.

“Ve- why are you shouting? You’re scaring us.” He glanced around and noticed Arthur, “oh hello Britain! Are you here to change Germany back?”

“I suppose I am,” he replied, turning to face Gilbert, “shall we?”

“Let’s go.” Gilbert walked towards the door, forcing Feliciano to re-enter the hotel room, and gestured for the others to follow.

Everyone filed into the room, which was becoming crowded since it wasn’t very large. France closed the door behind him and looked towards the bed, where he had last seen Ludwig.

“Where is he?” Francis asked.

“Oh, I hid him in the bathroom since I heard cursing,” Feliciano said, sending a glare towards Gilbert.

“What?” he asked.

“Well, you were the only one cursing,” England deadpanned.

“Oh, it doesn’t matter I taught him all the curse words anyways.” He knocked on the bathroom door. “Ludwig?”

“I don’t think you’re supposed to teach kids that,” America grinned.

Prussia replied with a smirk of his own, “he doesn’t use them anyways so it’s not a big deal.”

The door opened and Germany stepped out, “that’s because it’s rude and you sound less intelligent when you use them.”

“That’s it, no more visits from Austria,” Prussia declared.

“But I like him, he always brings me books and plays music for me.”

“I play you music too!”

“I prefer the piano over the flute.”

“You take that back!”

Arthur cleared his throat, interrupting the squabble. “So?”

“Hello, I’m Germany.” He held out his hand in greeting. Germany didn’t know why so many new countries were coming to visit his brother, but he still had to be polite and introduce himself to all of them. Even if it was becoming annoying.

Arthur shook the outstretched hand. “He doesn’t remember anything?” he marveled.

“No, he only has his memories from when he was this age. Why don’t you know the effects of the potion you made?” Prussia crossed his arms, giving England a look that demanded answers.

“I must have been too drunk to have differentiated from the different types of potions.”

“What potion?” Ludwig asked.

“Nothing,” Gilbert dismissed.

“I’m not dumb you know,” Ludwig huffed and walked over towards his bed.

“I know you’re not,” Prussia reassured his brother. Now he addressed Britain switching from the language that all countries shared to English. This was to ensure that his brother could no longer overhear and understand what they were talking about, “can you make an antidote or do anything to reverse this?”

“Yes, I’ll just need to get my magic book then I’ll need to find the ingredients,” England explained, also switching to English.

“Great, how long’s it gonna take for you to-” Gilbert paused once Arthur summoned a book out of thin air. “How’d you do that?!”

“Magic,” he spoke in a very dry sarcastic tone that normally Prussia would respond forcefully towards, but he had to agree it had been a dumb question.

“Fine, but how long will it take you to gather the ingredients and make it?”

“It shouldn’t take more than two hours-” Prussia interrupted England with a groan. “Oh, quit that! You’re lucky, most antidots take at least twice that long.”

“Sure, but it’ll work? He won’t be stuck like this much longer?” Gilbert fretted.

“No, once I’ve given him the potion he’ll fall asleep and wake up in a few hours as himself again. And even if I didn’t give him the potion, he’d end up waking up next morning back to normal.”

“Really?”

“Is it even worth it then?” France wondered.

Prussia turned to give him a menacing look.

“I just meant wouldn’t it be better to leave him like this and just let the magic out of his system? I might not know how it works, but I would assume that waiting for the magic to run its course, if it’s not hurting him, would be better than forcing his body through more of it. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Using too much magic on someone at once can harm them,” England confirmed, “but it’s much more than what Germany has been through. It takes several spells before anything happens, not to mention nations are able to handle magic much better than humans. He should be fine if I give him the reversal potion and nothing bad will come of him if you decide to wait.”

Prussia thought for a moment before he decided, “I think it’d be best to wait it out.”

“So, we hunted down Arthur for nothing.” Alfred pouted.

“You did get those chips.” Mathew reminded him.

“I guess you’re right.”

“What are we to do about the meeting though?” Prussia asked.

“Oh merde! I completely forgot!” Francis exclaimed, about to head towards the door.

“Wait,” Gilbert grabbed his friend’s arm before he could take more than one step, “what’re we going to do about Germany? What do we tell the other countries? They’ll surely notice if he’s not there, he even goes to these things when he’s sick!”

“Ya, it’s really annoying,” Italy muttered from his spot on the bed beside Germany. The boy made an annoyed face, not at all happy that the adults were talking in a language he didn’t understand. Even Italy who he thought was really nice was preventing him from being apart of the conversation.

“I can go to the meeting and explain what happened to him and say that’s why I’m late,” France suggested.

“We can’t tell the others! They might try and do something like hurt him or take advantage of the fact that he’s little.”

“Like who?” France challenged.

“Russia,” America said.

Prussia shuddered, “probably.”

“Alright, but I still need to go. I may hate these stupid things, but I’m still in charge.”

As the nations were talking, Italy had fallen asleep. Despite it not being time for his siesta, he was very tired from all the stress he had endured with finding out his boyfriend had been de-aged, and Germany’s attack. Germany noticed this and now feeling more alone than before, decided to go exploring.

He slowly got off the bed, trying to be as quiet as possible. Normally he wouldn’t disrespect his brother’s rules, but he was upset and knew that Gilbert wouldn’t do anything to liven his mood. Not to mention he would only go out into the hallway. He wouldn’t go far, that way he was only somewhat breaking the rules.

“Tell them that we’re rescheduling for tomorrow because all of us present are ill and we can’t very well have a meeting discussing how to reduce environmental impact when some of the most industrialized nations are gone,” Canada advised.

“That sounds like it could possibly work,” Arthur mused.

“Okay, but England, you’re coming with me because it was you who caused this,” Francis asserted.

England reluctantly agreed, fed up with all the arguing.

“Alright, so, France and England you’re going to the meeting to tell them it’s rescheduled, I’m staying here to take care of Germany, and you two are going to stay in your room and not let anyone know you’re not actually sick,” Prussia said.

All of them agreed.

“What about Italy?” France asked.

All five of them turned over to the bed to see Feliciano asleep and Ludwig was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Germany?” America asked.

“Germany!” Prussia called.

Canada shook Italy’s shoulder to wake him, “do you know where Germany went?”

“Wah? No, he was just here. Why?” He replied sleepily.

“Ludwig!” Gilbert screamed.

“The door’s opened,” England said.

“Scheiße!” He ran to the door, with everyone on his tail and frantically looked both ways.

“Look, at the end of the hall!” Arthur said pointing towards their left.

Indeed, at the end of the hall stood Germany talking to a very tall, menacing man.

“What’s Russia doing here! I thought he was still at the meeting!” America exclaimed.

Prussia lead the group over to the two.

“I hope he’s not hurting him,” Alfred fretted.

“Shut up,” Gilbert demanded.

As they approached it became apparent that the two were talking.

“So, your home is east of mine? But Prussia’s home is the one bordering the east of my home.” Germany asked.

“Yes, I’m further east, first is you, then Prussia, then Poland, then the Baltics, then me,” Russia explained.

“That sounds like it’s far.”

“Actually, it only takes a day or two by train.”

“Oh, maybe one day I could visit.”

“That sounds nice, maybe I’ll show you my gardens!”

“Ya, no don’t think so,” Gilbert interrupted, pulling Ludwig back towards him.

“Why not brother? He seems nice.”

“Well looks can be deceiving,” Alfred said.

“Come on Lud, let’s go back to our room,” Gilbert said, never taking his eyes off Ivan.

“Not until you apologize to Russia.”

Prussia stared at Germany in surprise. “What? No way!”

“You were insulting him to his face, that’s rude! Especially since all he’s been to me is nice. He told me he lives to the east of us and how his place gets even colder than ours. Can you believe it? His people must be unstoppable!”

Russia smiled at the compliment.

Prussia frowned, “ya, his people are great. Come on West we need to go back.”

“Why? You keep dismissing me and not telling me what’s going on. So, I’m not going with you until you tell me.” Germany said, squirming out of his older brother’s grip and standing beside Russia.

“Look, I can’t tell you. You wouldn’t understand. Please just come with me.” Gilbert pleaded.

“You’re the one always telling me how smart I am. Or is that all lies too?”

“No! You are smart. I just- it’s- it’s complicated! I can’t tell you! I wish I could but I can’t.”

“Why can’t you tell me?”

“Ugh! I don’t know how to explain!” Prussia said in frustration. Pulling his hair. “France help me out.”

“You’re asking me? I don’t know what to say! He’s your brother.”

“I’ll help!” Italy said, “Please Germany, if you come back to the room I’ll continue to help teach you Italian and we can draw together.”

He seemed to contemplate this before he said, “sorry, I want him to stop treating me like a dumb kid. I’m not going until then.”

Italy pouted, he usually managed to convince Germany with very little persuasion.

“I’m not treating you like a dumb kid!” Prussia defended.

“Then why were you purposely talking in a language you know I don’t understand?” Germany asked.

“I-uh” Gilbert stuttered.

“See.”

Prussia was no longer interested in being passive. “Come with me or you’re grounded!”

“What?”

“You won’t be able to read or leave the house for a week.”

“You’re being unfair.”

“No, I’m not. Now come!” He roughly grabbed Ludwig up into his arms and carried him back to the room.

“Ow, you’re hurting me!”

“Shut it!” he growled.

Ludwig stopped struggling, suddenly feeling very afraid of his brother.

The rest of the nations watched the scene from afar, not sure what to do or how to react.

“What’d you say to him?” Alfred questioned Ivan.

“I only told him about my home,” he replied.

“You didn’t hint at him being an adult or anything to do with the present?” Arthur asked.

“When I first saw him, I thought he was a new nation that had gotten lost, so I asked him who his charge was. He replied that it was Prussia and then introduced himself as Germany. I was confused but remembered you’re magic and thought maybe something had gone wrong, so I decided to play along. I introduced myself and asked why he was alone.

“He said that Prussia had been ignoring him and was keeping him from knowing what was going on, which made him upset, so he decided to go on a walk. I told him that we needed to get him back to his room and that surely his brother would be worried, to which he pointed down the hall and showed me his room was not far.

“He then asked me if I could talk about myself since he wanted a distraction and he was curious since he’d heard of me before. I then told him about my cold winters and how they’re even colder than his. He was surprised by this and asked if I lived north of him. I said no, I live to the east of you and that’s when you showed up.”

“How do we know that’s really what happened?” America asked.

“How could he have come up with all that in the time between now and when he was talking to Germany? Really America you’re being unreasonable!” England huffed. Of course, it would be America to start asking questions without thinking them through beforehand.

“Am not!”

“Also, why would he have reason to lie? If he knew about Germany and wanted to take advantage of him being little, then he could have taken him back to his room as soon as he’d stepped out of Prussia’s room.” Mathew added.

“Fine, I’ll believe you,” Alfred said begrudgingly.

“I guess since we’re done here, we should just go back to our rooms,” England said as he walked back towards his hotel room.

“Hey! You’re supposed to come with me to the meeting room first!” France exclaimed as he caught up with him.

“Ya Eyebrows! Now follow me Mattie! I brought my DS and my Mario Cart game so we gotta play,” Alfred said as he dragged his brother back to their room.

As the two old rivals went back to the boarding room bickering, and the North American nations and the Russian went back to their respected rooms, Italy stayed where he was. Unsure of what to do.

****

Prussia slammed the door shut with his foot, making the entire room shake. He was seething. How dare his little brother treat him like that! Germany had never disrespected him so badly in front of other adults when he had really been little. It must have been a side effect of the potion. But this thought didn’t make him any calmer.

Little Germany was frightened, to say the least. He had seen his brother angry before, but never at him. At least not to this extent. Usually Gilbert would get angry at something small he’d done, which he would quickly apologize for and that would be that. But now he had gone and disrespected him. He had forgotten his place as a child with less knowledge and ranking than his adult brother and now he was facing the consequences.

He was surprised when he felt tears falling down his cheeks.

Prussia set him on his bed. “Now you are not to move from this spot. Got it?”

Ludwig didn’t think he could speak without starting to cry, so he simply nodded his head.

“I want a verbal reply,” Gilbert demanded.

“O-okay,” he replied, voice wavering.

Gilbert almost apologized, feeling a little guilty at how he had caused his brother to cry, but held back. “You know you’re supposed to listen to me. Never have you been so disrespectful towards me and what makes it worse is that you did so in front of other adult nations. Do you really want the world to think you’re a brat who doesn’t listen to his superiors?”

“N-no.”

“Not to mention trying to control me. Telling me to apologize as if I were the child out of the two of us.”

“But, you were being mean,” Germany protested.

“It doesn’t mat-” Prussia paused. Could he really tell him that it didn’t matter that he was being rude to other countries? If he was really a child he wouldn’t in order to teach him respect, but he wasn’t really a kid. Even still it felt wrong to say that to him.

“Why wouldn’t it matter?” Germany crossed his arms and tilted his head.

“I have a- a not so good relationship with Russia,” that was an understatement, “not to mention that I don’t trust him, that’s why I was rude to him and why I was urging you to come back with me without really listening to what you were saying.”

Ludwig seemed to think about what he was told before he replied, “but he was nice to me.”

“I’m sure he was, but I have a long bad history with him and you saying he was nice to you isn’t going to change my mind that easily.” Prussia sat down beside his brother. “Look, I didn’t mean to ignore you or make you feel as if I thought you were dumb. I just don’t know how to explain what’s going on.”

“Okay.”

Ludwig still had some tears on his face, so Gilbert wiped them away. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry too.” Germany wrapped his arms around his older brother’s torso in a hug.

Prussia returned the hug. “You’re still not allowed to leave though.”

“Okay,” Germany agreed.

A knock then sounded at the door.

“I’ll get it,” Prussia said as he got up and went to answer the door.

It was Venenziano, who was fidgeting with his hands. “I didn’t really know where to go since I don’t want to go back to my room where I’ll be alone, so I thought…”

“You know you’re always welcome Feli!” Gilbert smiled and pushed the door open wide, inviting him in.

Feliciano entered the room and spotted Ludwig on the bed.

“Hello.” Germany waved.

“Hi.”

“We were just about to take a nap. Want to join?” Prussia asked.

“Ya! I’d love to.” The two of them then walked over to Germany’s bed and laid on either side of him.

“What’re you doing?” Germany mumbled sleepily. It had been a long eventful day and although he was a bit too old for naps he was still very tired and wouldn’t mind falling asleep at least for a little while.

“We’re going to cuddle and fall asleep,” Prussia said as Italy wrapped his arms around Germany. Prussia then moved closer and wrapped his arms around both of them.

“You’re not squished are you?” He mumbled.

“No,” Ludwig yawned and nuzzled his face into Gilbert’s chest.

“Good,” Gilbert whispered just before all three of them fell asleep.

****

Prussia woke up and after he had looked out the curtains and noticed that the sun was now setting he came to realize that they had been asleep for several hours. He also thought about getting dinner but knew he would have to be careful of what he got since little Germany lived in a world where fast food and wrappers didn’t exist.

After watching the sunset and thinking about what to do he thought that room service was the best option. And it would be nice since Ludwig usually insisted on going out to eat because it was usually cheaper.  

Always the responsible one.

As Gilbert was on the phone ordering for himself and Ludwig, Feliciano woke up.

“Why are you on the phone?” he asked drowsily as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

Prussia pulled the phone away from his mouth and said, “I’m ordering food. Do you want some?”

“Of course I do!” he exclaimed and proceeded to tell Prussia what he wanted; a plate of pasta and some wine (“good wine, not that cheap crappy stuff”), and then attempted to go back to his room to get his money to which Prussia offered to pay for him.

Technically it was Germany’s money, but it didn’t really matter.

After Gilbert had finished ordering he went over to Ludwig and tried to wake him up. “Rise and shine West. We’re getting room service and I want you to wake up a bit before you eat.”

Ludwig stretched and said, “okay. What did you get?”

“I just got us roast lamb with potatoes and green beans.” Gilbert hadn’t really been interested in having an elaborate dinner and knew that the French chefs probably wouldn’t make any German dish the way he preferred it, so he’d just gone with a simple dinner for the both of them.

“What are you getting Italy?” Germany asked.

“I’m getting spaghetti with a tomato sauce and red wine,” Italy said, “maybe if it’s okay with Prussia you could have some.”

Germany looked to Prussia for an answer.

“Sure, why not.”

****

Later, once all of them had eaten and someone had come and taken their dishes away, Prussia was trying to figure out what to do to keep himself entertained.

Oh, and his younger brother and Italy too of course.

“I’m bored,” Prussia said from his position sprawled out on the floor on his stomach.

“We know,” Germany replied. He himself was sprawled out on top of Prussia, back to back, facing the ceiling. He himself was also bored, but he was more annoyed at his brother for whining.

“Well you’re not doing anything to fix it,” Gilbert complained.

“Why don’t we try drawing pictures of each other blindfolded,” Feliciano suggested.

“Sounds good to me.” Gilbert gently got up, forcing Ludwig to roll off his back.

For the next hour and a half, the three of them played games to keep themselves occupied until they got tired. First, they drew terrible pictures of each other blindfolded. They had gone around and had drawn the person to their right, meaning that Prussia drew Italy, Italy drew Germany, and Germany drew Prussia. In the end, they voted whose was the worst and after much defense on Prussia’s end, his drawing of Italy was given the award.

They then played Twenty-one (more commonly known as Blackjack) before Ludwig realized Gilbert was cheating which prompted him to play tackle Ludwig. Cards went everywhere from under the bed to the doorway and it took them a good 5 minutes to clean them up. There were even still a few cards missing.

Now the three of them were once again climbing into Ludwig’s bed ready to call it a day.

“K so, good night,” Gilbert said before violently turning over and pretending to be asleep. Snoring loudly.

“Wait, you forgot about my bedtime story.” Ludwig started to shake Gilbert, trying to force him to get up.

“Nope, I’m all out of stories. I’ll have to go buy a new book tomorrow,” Prussia said trying to hide his smile.

“Just tell me a story about you then,” Germany pleaded.

“Alright then.” Prussia rolled over. “But there’s no way you’ll be able to fall asleep when I tell you this tale!”

Prussia sat up, leaning against the headboard as he waited for Italy and Germany to get comfortable.

“You ready?” he asked.

“Yep,” Italy chirped.

“Yes,” Germany said.

“K then. It was a great day. The sky was clear, there was no wind, and it wasn’t too hot or too cold. The perfect day for a battle.

“An amazing hero named The Kingdom of Prussia was leading his strong army to defeat the nasty Austrian army who were trying to prevent the hero from being apart of unifying a great empire. His army was so strong that they defeated the Austrian army in only seven weeks all by their selves!”

Italy piped up, correcting Prussia, “you didn’t defeat Austria alone. I was there and so was my brother, not to mention the several states that-”

“Not important!” Prussia interrupted. “So, anyways. Prussia the great hero destroyed their army with the help of a few friends and formed the Northern German Confederation which he helped grow into Germany and is now raising to be as great of a hero as him. But I don’t think he’ll be as great as the hero Prussia.”

Germany looked upset before trying to hide his hurt.

“I think- no I know he’ll be even better than the hero Prussia. He will be feared by his enemies, admired by his allies, and loved by his people.” Gilbert finished the statement by ruffling Ludwig’s hair.

“Why do you always do that?” Ludwig complained.

“Because you’re cute and I know it annoys you,” Gilbert said.

“I’m not cute,” Germany muttered as he pulled the covers closer to him.

“Yes, you are, now good night.” Prussia then turned off the lamp on the bedside table and got comfortable.

Germany made a noise of disapproval before replying, “good night.”

“Good night,” Italy said.

It only took a few minutes before the three of them were asleep once again.

****

Before he even opened his eyes, Gilbert knew he wasn’t lying in his bed but on the floor. _Did I really get drunk enough to have fallen asleep on the floor?_ He asked himself before remembering the events that had transpired the day before.

He opened his eyes to see that he was actually facing his bed and was leaning against Ludwig’s. He turned around to see Ludwig, now back as an adult, with his back to him.

“Rise and shine bruder!” he chirped, standing up to now tower over the bed. The scene he saw was both serene and adorable. Germany and Italy were fast asleep in each others’ arms, Italy’s head tucked under Ludwig’s chin, and legs intertwined under the covers.

“Aw!” he cooed loudly.

Germany jolted awake, at first looking confused before realizing the situation, noticing his brother with a big smirk on his face at how he and Italy were cuddling.

“Bruder!” Germany exclaimed, face going red, “do you really feel the need to embarrass me all the time?”

“Half the time I’m not even trying, you’re just easily flustered.”

Ludwig groaned in frustration.

Feliciano woke, noticing that Ludwig was no longer holding him. “Why’d you get up? I still want to cuddle.”

Gilbert snickered in the background as Ludwig said, “why are you even here? I thought that you went back to your room last night.”

Prussia and Italy shared a look before Prussia asked, “you don’t remember anything from yesterday?”

“You mean the celebration we had where everyone got drunk? Why, did something bad happen?”

“No, that was the day before yesterday. Yesterday… well… did you dream anything strange, like that you were a kid or something.”

Germany glanced down at hands, taking a moment to try and think.

“There are only a few things I can recall,” he said, “the most prominent is that Italy and I were playing some game, but I can’t remember what. There was also me hiding behind your leg and looking at France who looked upset for some reason.”

“Okay well-” Prussia started.

“I also remember you buying room service for all three of us, with my money!” Ludwig exclaimed.

“Of course you remember that! Just my luck-”

“I can pay you back Germany,” Italy piped in.

“No, it’s fine. Prussia already said he wouldn’t make you pay, so it would be rude to revoke that promise now.”

“Well it’s not like I could drive us out to a real restaurant and you freak out over the fact that TV is a thing. Not to mention people with dyed hair, or heaven forbid a woman wearing pants!” Gilbert said the last part in an exasperated manner, pulling his hair to emphasize it.

“What are you talking about?” Ludwig asked.

“Yesterday I woke up to find you as a 9-year-old with no memory of the present day, which was all because stupid England made a potion for France and he ended up giving it to a drunk you.”

To Prussia’s surprise Germany made no shocked reaction to this, it almost seemed as if this wasn’t news.

“Well,” he prompted, “why aren’t you demanding to know why I’m lying? Or at the very least confused.”

“It makes sense, well not really, but it would explain why I vaguely remember only a select few things from yesterday and why in my memories I am looking up at everyone when usually I am looking down at them.”

“Okay, so you believe me?”

“Of course I do. Why would you have reason to lie?”

Prussia felt an overwhelming feeling of warmth blossom in his chest at that. He sat beside his brother and gave him a big hug.

“Aw! It means so much to hear that you believe my word without any skepticism like usual.”

“That’s only because everything adds up, not to mention the fact that Italy would have told me if you were lying.”

“You wound me,” Prussia faked hurt before he started to laugh.

“It’s good to have you back West.”

“It’s good to be back brother.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> For those of you wondering why they’re sharing a room and why it only has two rooms and the beds are both in the same one. It’s cause Germany is all for saving expenses and getting a small room and Prussia doesn’t have his own money so he’s forced to share a room with his bro. He doesn’t care that much, at least he can bug Lud at night with his philosophical questions XD.  
> This is my first finished fanfic, so I know it’s not going to be 10/10 amazing, no problems found. And for that reason, I am telling you to feel free to point out any grammar errors or give me some advice. So long as you’re not mean I’d love to hear from you. Anyways thanks for reading until the end, I know it’s long, I originally meant for it to be much shorter but eh… I like it the way it is.


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